What do you mean you can make money with a blog?

I work the boring 9-5 grind for now, but throughout the day I often think about how my blog will take me out of the miserable cubicle I sit in! Often times I find myself talking to friends about making money with my blog even though they have no idea what I'm talking about and are usually left with a look of confusion on their faces. That's okay though. Half the fun of monetizing a blog is telling others how they can do the same. I feel it manifests positive outcomes on my mission to make enough money from my blog so that I don't have to work in an office anymore. I do my best to explain all the possibilities that a successful blogger can take advantage of to make a viable income from a blog, but most of it goes in one ear and then right out of the other. That is until I start dropping numbers. As soon as I go on my rant about the people that are pulling in tens of thousands each month from their blogs, then the ears start to perk! Attention has been grabbed. I love it. Money gets people listening and motivated, and fast! The first thing they ask after I go over the very basics is, “how much does it cost to start a blog?”, and, “is it hard to maintain?”.My answers to those questions:1. Free. (a few dollars for custom domain and hosting)2. Not if you like to write!I always mention Blogger and Wordpress as places to get started, as they are both very user friendly and there are ga-zillions of tutorials and help forums for each one. So after I explain the “getting a blog started” part, I prepare for the next barrage of questions which are the most exciting….the ones where they ask me how they can actually make money online with a blog. They all love to hear the big numbers I throw out. It gets them so excited!Right from the start, I refer them to all of the "A-Lister" blogs. I tell them to study those for a few days and see just why they are making six figure incomes from them. There is so much valuable information on these popular blogs that it’ll keep them busy for a few days. I still refer to these blogs on a daily basis for inspiration, motivation and advice. Some of the "A-List" blogs I'm talking about are John Chow, Shoemoney, Problogger, and others like them.So after the research and when they are at the point that they have their rookie blog up and running, the first thing I recommend is creating some quality posts and content to “jump start” the blog, and then sign up for a Google Adsense account. I explain to them how Google Adsense is an easy entry into the blog revenue world, and sign up can be done pretty easily in under 5 minutes.One disclaimer I always throw in is “this is NOT a get rich quick scheme”. You have to be passionate about your writing, and the ONLY way to become successful and gain more traffic is to write creative, informative, interesting and unique writing. Content is everything! Without good content, your blog is nothing. Worthless. You might earn a few bucks here and there, but it won’t even be enough to buy that iced coffee that you get every morning at the local coffee stand. If you have a decent amount of quality posts that people want to read and then rinse and repeat for months on end, then someday you might be lucky enough to brag about your earnings. Remember, you have to provide valuable information to people to keep them coming back. Create an effect that when people read one of your posts, they feel that they are gaining something. Do that and you'll always have visitors, guaranteed. Making a steady income from your blog won’t happen overnight. It’s taken most successful bloggers at least a year to start bragging about anything. Of course there are a few exceptions to that rule, but you know what I mean. Eventually with enough quality valuable content and organic traffic, you will be a success. Give yourself at least six months to plan everything out. This is definitely a long-term strategy. Anyway, only one of my co-workers has taken any interest in starting his own blog. He hasn’t exactly jumped in the blogosphere yet, but I’m sure it won’t be long. Explaining to him all the different possible revenue sources is not as difficult as before. I usually drop names like Adsense, ReviewMe, Bidvertiser, Amazon, Kontera, AdBrite, and the many others that exist. With the right combination of revenue generators, you will eventually be able to make a handsome second income and then if you're lucky, a full time income. The one point I want to make with not only my friends and co-workers, but also with my readers is - YOU CAN MAKE MONEY WITH A BLOG, IT IS POSSIBLE! Don't let anyone else tell you different!But it’s not easy. And it takes dedicated, hard work to get the ball rolling. You need to make a commitment to make good on promises to your readers, and keep on pushing. Push your creative writing skills until you think you're doing great and then push it some more or you will quickly fall behind. Research and network until you think you can’t do it anymore, and then keep on going. The more people you know, the better! Having quality backlinks from high PageRank blogs/sites is a huge factor in determining your long term traffic and visitor success. I’ve already planned ahead in my mind, because I know it will take every bit of 6-12 months to even come close to building up the backlinks to my blog. So just remember, YOU CAN DO IT! Believe in yourself and remember that you can write great content! Once you do that and put in enough time, making money with your blog will follow. It's simply "icing on the cake"!

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